Economic Revitalization
Tracking downtown revitalization
Since the onset of COVID-19, DSA has been tracking the impact on our local economy. As downtown bounces back, we continue to follow dozens of metrics to trace the path to full economic recovery. A few of these metrics are below.
Downtown Revitalization Dashboard
February 2025 (January data)
Downtown Seattle was the first American urban center to experience the impacts of COVID-19, enduring a sudden economic downturn. As downtown continues to evolve, DSA will publish a monthly Revitalization Dashboard examining key metrics. The data sets provide a comparison point to the same time period in 2019. Additionally, the dashboard will feature notable stories that provide context regarding downtown’s renewal and reemergence.
Please credit the Downtown Seattle Association Revitalization Dashboard for use of charts, data and images on this page.
Total monthly visitors since 2019
Nearly 2 million unique visitors came downtown during January 2025. This represents 94% of the visitors seen in January 2019, and a 14% increase over the number of visitors in January 2024.
Average weekday worker foot traffic
In January, downtown’s average weekday worker foot traffic was 57% of January 2019’s average, representing a 9% increase from January 2024. Excluding the two holidays, the downtown core averaged nearly 95,000 daily workers — the second-highest daily average since March 2020.
Monthly hotel rooms sold compared to 2019
There were more than 241,000 downtown hotel rooms sold in January 2025. This figure represents 85% of the demand in January 2019, and is a 5% increase compared to January 2024.
In January, the number of occupied apartment units downtown continued growing, rising to more than 59,000. This represents a 4% increase compared to Q1 2024 and a 26% increase compared to Q1 2019.
Of Note in Downtown
Local visitors — defined as people living within 10 miles of downtown — came to the center city nearly 2.6 million times in January 2025. The number of locals visiting in January was 11% higher than in January 2024.
Over the past few years, worker foot traffic levels on Mondays and Fridays have been lower compared to midweek levels. In January 2025, worker foot traffic on Mondays and Fridays in the Denny Regrade and South Lake Union neighborhoods increased 22% compared to December 2024 and was 36% higher than in January 2024.¹
In 2024, DSA/MID ambassadors clocked more than 267,000 hours, providing cleaning, safety and concierge services, as well as park management and activation across the 300-square-block MID service area. This represents a 27% year-over-year increase.
- Average worker foot traffic for Mondays and Fridays in January excludes the MLK Jr. Day holiday and first Monday of the new year. The December 2024 figure includes Mondays and Fridays between Dec. 2–20.
Coming Up in Downtown
The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is expected to welcome 60,000 flora fanatics to the Seattle Convention Center Arch Building Feb. 19-23. Visit Seattle estimates this annual show contributes nearly $14 million to the local economy.
The Seattle Sounders FC open the 2025 MLS schedule at Lumen Field against Charlotte FC at 7:30 p.m. on February 22. The Sounders are aiming to earn a trip to the MLS Cup for the first time since 2020.
Four days of fandom will bring thousands of interesting looks to downtown for the 2025 Emerald City Comic Con. The Seattle Convention Center expects 25,000 people to flood downtown March 6–9. Visit Seattle estimated last year’s event had an economic impact of more than $21 million.
COVID-19 Downtown Recovery Weekly Snapshot
These charts show weekly statistics from March 2020 through the most recent week available. To indicate the level of recovery, data is displayed as a percent of the same metric for the comparable week of 2019.
Notes on Sources
Downtown foot traffic data are provided by Placer.ai and are based on cell phone location data. Each person is counted once per day. International visitors are not included. Subsets of this data in the charts are as follows:
- Office worker presence is estimated based on visits by workers who were present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays in the downtown neighborhoods with the heaviest concentration of office space.*
- Total visitors includes those who do not live or work downtown. It does not include international visitors.
- Hotel data are based on monthly reports from STR, provided by Visit Seattle.
- Apartment occupancy data are from CoStar. This is reported quarterly but the current quarter data are updated in real-time as new information is added to the database.
- Domestic visitors counts those who do not live or work downtown.
- Total foot traffic includes all visits to downtown by domestic visitors, residents and workers.
- Pike Place Market visitors includes domestic visitors who do not live or work at the Pike Place Market.
*Note that workers who have not visited their work site in the past 90 days are classified as “visitors” until they are regularly visiting their work site at least three times in a one-week period.